An anti-violence caravan led by poet activist Javier Sicilia and other victims of the drug wars plaguing Mexico is approaching its culmination in the border city of Ciudad Juárez.

The convoy of buses has travelled through much of the country since leaving Sicilia's home city of Cuernavaca in central Mexico a week ago. At stops along the way the protesters have held rallies designed to bring attention to the personal tragedies contained in the figures: 40,000 dead since president Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against drug cartels in December 2006.

In the city of Zacatecas, six-year-old Francisco stood in front of Sicilia clutching a picture of his father, Fernando Rodriguez, who was found dead wrapped in a blanket a few months ago. Poet and boy hugged each other and cried together as Francisco's uncle said: "We want justice too."

Sicilia's unlikely leadership of the movement sprung out of the murder of his son, whose body was found in an abandoned car in March along with six others. The huge pressure surrounding his case prompted a major operation that last month led to the capture of a drug trafficker who allegedly ordered the killings.

The activists want the government to swap its forced-based strategy for one attacking the poverty that helps the gangs find recruits, and want it to root out the official corruption they say has allowed organised crime to grow. They also want all the victims to be named, and monuments to them to be built in public squares around the country.

In the city of Torreon on Wednesday, the rally was held near where a few hours earlier gunmen burst into a drug rehabilitation centre and killed 13 recovering addicts.

Speakers included a woman called Amparo Castillo who said her son, Jose Manuel, was killed for refusing to become a gunman. "He didn't want to become one of them."